War, Or Something Like It: How Realistic Are the Top Military Video Games?

Any game that lets you respawn when you die will be only so realistic. Yet big-budget military games do manage to combine authenticity with entertainment—sometimes. We consulted with a few experts to find out how much of Battlefield 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Halo 4, and other well-known shooters are based on real military technology.

Halo 4

Halo 4

By now, you know the Halo story: Centuries from now, humanity is at war with the Covenant, an intergalactic race. But while they use futuristic, plasma-like weapons, we're still shooting at them with weapons based on the existing M16 and French FAMAS rifle.

Halo 4, the newest chapter, comes out this fall, with 343 Industries tasked by Microsoft to take over the franchise from Bungie. Frank O'Connor, the 343 creative director, says the new game will be set in the 2550s, and, despite the switch in development houses, it'll maintain the well-known formula—even if it sacrifices a little in the way of realism. "If guns in the 26th century still have bolt action and springs, I think we'll have gone pretty wrong somewhere technologically," he says. "Contrast our brass cartridges and gunpowder with faster-than-light space travel and you'll definitely have some explaining to do."

The development house just released some new teaser materials yesterday, including the Halo 4 battle rifle, which bears a striking similarity to the FAMAS. "We're returning to a fan favorite," says Dan Sarkar, a weapons designer at 343. "The Battle Rifle is a standard-issue weapon that has a wide variety of purposes; it's a go-to weapon for many purposes. The Battle Rifle is vicious—you can have precision over its use while being tactical in close quarters."

Sarkar says the studio is still experimenting with weapon options and accuracy, but one returning feature on the rifle is the three-shot burst. He says the new Battle Rifle is particularly lethal now because of this firing mode, which can take out enemies even from long range, unlike a shotgun.

The three-shot burst is effective in the real military, but it's not commonly used. Mark Jackson is a military veteran and now a spokesman for BAE Systems, a weapons designer and developer. In his engagements using the M16, he often did not use the three-shot burst because it tended to cause gun jamming. Jackson says that many military-themed shooters don't show that the first round you shoot is the most accurate. As the barrel heats up, your shots will become less and less precise. (Halo does sometimes show a gun overheating, but not the loss of accuracy.)

Another video game divergence from reality: head shots. Charles Gannon, a Fulbright senior specialist, professor, and science-fiction author, tells PM that head shots are rare on the battlefield. The reason is simple: it's better to focus on the torso, which is a bigger target. Sarkar says military trainers teach soldiers to shoot to wound and not kill because it's basically a two for one: you take one enemy out of the fight with the shot, and another who has to care for the wounded soldier.

In games, though, head shots are just more fun. "None of the aliens you encounter in Halo 4 actually require a head shot to kill," O'Connor says. "And while we're not going for simulation anyway, just like in real life, center mass is a better bet, but it may take a few more rounds to take out the bigger bad guys, like Elites. Creatures like the Hunter don't even have heads as you'd normally understand them."

Finally, the experience of shooting a rifle is embellished for entertainment value. Sarkar says an M16 feels like a powerful, singular force against your body when you shoot. But Halo 4 features blurring effects and vibration when you shoot. This is purely for aesthetic reasons, O'Connor says. It makes the game more immersive when there's a sustained rattle. And while a real FAMAS sounds boring, like a dull whack, the sound effects for the Halo 4 rifle will incorporate a caulking gun, a pair of rusty scissors, a real mortar, and the sound of a screaming brush-tail possum turned down an octave—all in a single shot.

Battlefield 3

Battlefield 3

One of the most realistic shooters in recent memory, Battlefield 3 nails the chaotic feel of real war, the more expansive battlefields, and the advanced weapons used by real special forces. Sarkar says there are several authentic details in Battlefield 3 that he appreciates: special forces can use unusual (and expensive) weapons like the SCAR-H or the FAMAS; in real combat soldiers can go for long periods without ever seeing an enemy and then experience a hectic close-quarters fight; and the tanks in the game move and shoot realistically.

Of course, the game is not without a few embellishments. In the acclaimed Thunder Run level, for instance, tanks do move at about the right speed (45 to 60 mph), according to Mark Signorelli, a vice president and general manager of the new BAE Systems ground-combat hybrid tank who is also a military vet. However, he says, real tanks rarely group together as they do in games—that makes for an easy target. And during the long trip across the Kavir Desert on that level, he says, artillery rounds should have been firing off like crazy because tanks are easier to target in an open area, and the enemy would have known that.

Another difference is the acceleration speed. The M1 has some serious punch in B3, and there's even a burst mode that's somewhat realistic (sorry, no nitro on real tanks, but there is a way to punch the acceleration). But, Signorelli says, the initial acceleration on a real M1 Abrams is even faster.

And Battlefield 3 includes another departure from reality that's common in shooters, Gannon says. While players are driving the tank, they can fire the primary 120-mm round at enemies. In some cases, you'll shoot and a few guys will scamper away. But in real life, Gannon says, the shrapnel and concussive boom can kill soldiers from up to 50 yards away.

But here's something the game gets right: the weapons that ground infantry use to destroy tanks. In shooters there's almost always a level in which players must grab an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade launcher) and shoot at a tank. After three or four rounds, the tank explodes. In reality, though, an RPG does little damage to a tank. So, in Battlefield 3, the infantry use hand-held Javelin missile launchers, which really can destroy some tanks in one shot and an M1 Abrams in two or three.